Birthday Choice
by Dark Ice Dragon
Summary: "Heeey, M, I have a question for you." "Yeah?" "Wanna celebrate your birthday?"


**Summary** : "Heeey, M, I have a question for you." "Yeah?" "Wanna celebrate your birthday?"

Birthday fic for Hellse Bunny! She asked for a fic where M-21 got a birthday. :3 Hope you have a good day!

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 **Birthday Choice  
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By Dark Ice Dragon

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"Heeey, M, I have a question for you."

M-21 tilted his head back on the sofa just in time to see Tao before Tao looped an arm around his shoulders. "Yeah?" Tao always seemed to have 'questions' about things; they tended to be about plans he'd made regarding the Raizel Knights - the rest of the time, everyone found out what Tao wanted to do _after_ he'd went through with it.

"Wanna celebrate your birthday?" Tao grinned at him.

...Uh. "I don't know what my birthday is," M-21 said, looking at Tao, puzzled. Tao had to know that. If M-21 didn't know what his name was, how could he know when he was born?

Tao's grin didn't dip at all. If anything, it _widened_. "So when _do_ you want to celebrate it?"

"We're going to be doing this whatever happens, aren't we?" M-21 said with a shake of the head.

"Only if you want to." Tao took back his arm and sat on the stool, leaning forward with an attentive expression. "Sooo?"

It...wouldn't hurt. They could celebrate this birthdate until they found his real name and all his other information. "Not tomorrow."

Tao laughed, waving a hand side to side. "Of course not! That's not _nearly_ enough time to prepare."

...Of course, since Tao was involved, he would throw himself at it like he did with everything else.

"Or do you want me to choose?"

Was that a good idea? Giving Tao the reins meant _Tao got the reins_ and he could do whatever he wanted. But. M-21 trusted him. No matter what Tao did, he wouldn't harm him. He exhaled and nodded. "Fine." It was only a date.

"I was thinkiiing-" Tao leaned back and started swinging on the stool. "-May the twenty-first!"

Huh. "Why those dates?" Had Tao just chosen them at random?

" _Because!_ " Tao straightened, his slippered feet hitting the floor again. He raised a hand and pointed a finger to the ceiling. "If you're born in May, that means you're a Taurus, which you are because you are _completely_ 'bullheaded' when you want to be and two-" Tao lifted a second finger. "-the twenty-one should be obvious."

It was. Though... "You believe in that?" Since Tao surrounded himself with technology and computers, Tao using star signs to pick out a birthday seemed out of place.

Tao arched a challenging eyebrow, his mouth twitching as he tried to hide his smile. "How would _you_ choose?"

M-21 didn't say anything for a few seconds and then sighed, leaning back on the sofa in defeat. "I would have picked them out a bowl." If he could even be bothered cutting up all that paper. Otherwise he would have closed his eyes over a calendar and chosen whatever his finger landed on.

"See?" Tao let the full force of his grin out. "My way's better."

But if Tao had been looking at _star signs_ to try and work out what fitted him best… "You've been thinking about this a lot, haven't you?"

Tao shrugged, rubbing the back of his neck with a chuckle. "I wanted something that fitted, you know?"

Not really, but if Tao wanted to do that, it was his time he used up.

"So is that fine?" Tao asked, watching his face.

He nodded. "Yeah." It wasn't for a couple of months anyway.

xOx

Tao grinned to himself, bouncing on his toes as he waited for M-21 to come home. He nearly dislodged the birthday hat on his head but he pushed it back into place with a sweep of his hand. Most of the food was in place (Boss was in the kitchen preparing the drinks) and so was everyone, all wearing a hat and carrying a noise maker in hand (even though Regis had grimaced for a second when Tao had handed him one).

M-21 _should_ be arriving soon if he hadn't gotten distracted by anything on the way. Unless he had. No-one had mentioned any shopping for anyone to get, and it's not like M-21 did any window shopping unless he was already out with him and Takeo. But what if he'd decided to go for a walk by himself instead? Shoot! Should he send him a text message? But that would be suspicious.

Tao looked up at a pat on his shoulder and Takeo smiled down at him. He had a bright green hat on his head that had tinsel around the rim. "He'll come soon. He's never late."

"I know," Tao said, fiddling with his noise maker. "But I want him to come _now_." So then he could see M-21's surprised face when he walked into the living room. All his cameras were set up to capture the moment.

"Well I am." Tao whirled around (and so did everyone else) to the _back_ of the room, where M-21 was leaning on the door frame, a smirk on his face.

"Did you climb in through the _window_?" Tao yelled, pointing at him with the noise maker. "No fair!" There was no way M-21 could have gotten behind them without being sneaky. "This was supposed to be a surprise!" Not the surprisers being surprised!

M-21 snorted, shaking his head, his smirk staying in place. "You thought I'd forget the birthday you gave me?"

"...Well, yeah," Tao said, his shoulders slumping as he deflated. "That was kinda the point." To give M-21 enough time to forget the date and how close it was and then surprise him.

" _And_ that I wouldn't realise something was up when Frankenstein asked me to stay behind _alone_ at the school because there was something only I could do?" M-21 arched an eyebrow at Frankenstein, who chuckled.

"Mm, that may have been a bit of an oversight," Frankenstein said as he carried the drinks to the table, "but we _were_ hoping that you would be sufficiently distracted to not notice." He paused, looking down at M-21's feet. They were in the usual pink slippers. "You had the foresight to bring slippers with you. Thank you."

Which meant M-21 had planned ahead. "Next year," Tao said, jabbing the noise maker in M-21's direction, "I'll get you."

"We'll see." M-21's smirk widened.

And ooh, there was the gauntlet being thrown down. Tao matched his smirk with a grin of his own. "You're on!"

Then Tao blew the noise maker, making M-21 twitch. "But that's for next year. Right now, we have to give the birthday guy his party!" No way were they going to waste all this food and preparation.

And next year, Tao _would_ find a way to surprise him.

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'Raizel Knights' just because ahaha, who knows how many there will be in the future, pfft. Also, M-21 doesn't make a comment on the actual month, since in Korean, months go by [number]-month.


End file.
